Elevate’s hits uranium close to surface to boost Marenica outlook

• Elevate Uranium intersects 13m of near surface granite-hosted mineralisation at Marenica 
• A new style of mineralisation has been identified 
• Interpretation of results from recently completed drill program in progress with future drill programs being planned 

Special Report: Elevate Uranium has hit thick, near-surface granite hosted uranium at the Marenica project in Namibia’s Erongo region, identifying a new target style of mineralisation outside the existing 61Mlb resource.

Hole MAR2500 was one of several drill holes across a multi-kilometre area where Elevate Uranium (ASX:EL8) intersected mineralisation within the basement lithologies.

MAR2500 returned six mineralised intervals above 100ppm U₃O₈, totalling 24m of aggregated mineralisation, with the deepest intersection occurring at 58.5m. That’s over double the depth reached by earlier drilling in this zone.

Several other holes close to MAR2500 also intersected mineralisation, most of which were only drilled to a depth of 28m, confirming that mineralisation may extend deeper than the current drill depth. 

Drilling also intersected mineralisation in a palaeochannel in the southeastern portion of the tenement, with further work required to define the limits of the mineralised zone, as well as anomalous intersections throughout the tenement, each relating to a specific geochemical or radiometric target. 

Drill interpretation ahead of future drilling 

Elevate’s Marenica project is 25km southeast of the company’s Capri tenement. 

Exploration drilling during the quarter tested an array of targets based on interpreted palaeochannel location, radiometrics and detailed geological mapping. 

Particularly encouraging are several mineralised intersections in both pink and white granite, notably MAR2500, which displayed an interval of 13 m at 203ppm eU₃O₈, including 3.5 m at 326ppm. 

EL8 managing director Murray Hill said the company has now identified another mineralisation style with a large, mineralised interval of 13m thickness intersected in granite close to surface. 

“This was one of a number of holes in the drilling program completed last month that intersected uranium mineralisation,” he said. 

“The team are interpreting the results from that drill program, along with historical drilling in specific areas of the tenement, before planning future drill programs that could add to the current 61Mlb U₃O₈ resource.

“This discovery, in addition to mineralisation intersected in the southeast of the project area will form part of a future drill program.”

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What else is happening? 

Hill said the diversification of the company’s exploration programs over the past 12 months outside of the more traditional palaeochannel hosted style of mineralisation has proven successful.

“This new style of mineralisation identified at Marenica opens a new search space for us, no longer restricting exploration to palaeochannel uranium deposits,” he said.

The current phase of drilling at Marenica has been completed, with exploration activities moving to detailed field investigation, mapping and interpretation to allow follow up of this target later in the year.

So far, a total of 44 holes for 1701m have been drilled since the end of the March quarter. 

EL8 has 160Mlb of global yellowcake resources, including 48Mlb in Australia and 112Mlb across Marenica and Koppies in Namibia, the premier uranium producing jurisdiction in Africa and the third largest producer after Kazakhstan and Canada.

Its key milestone this year will be the development of a demonstration plant for its U-pgrade processing technology, due for completion at the end of the June half.

The plant is designed to upgrade 200ppm ore to 10,000ppm, taking out 95% of largely waste material to reduce leaching infrastructure requirements and costs. It is expected to be operational late in the calendar year.

This article was developed in collaboration with Elevate Uranium, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.